Annual Report - American Balanced Fund - American Funds

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting FirmTo the Shareholders and Board of Trustees of American Balanced Fund:We have audited the accompanying statement of assets and liabilities of American Balanced Fund (the “Fund”), including the summaryinvestment portfolio, as of December 31, 2014, and the related statement of operations for the year then ended, the statements ofchanges in net assets for each of the two years in the period then ended, and the financial highlights for each of the periods presented.These financial statements and financial highlights are the responsibility of the Fund’s management. Our responsibility is to express anopinion on these financial statements and financial highlights based on our audits.We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Thosestandards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements and financialhighlights are free of material misstatement. The Fund is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internalcontrol over financial reporting. Our audits included consideration of internal control over financial reporting as a basis for designingaudit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of theFund’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion. An audit also includes examining, on a testbasis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used andsignificant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. Our procedures includedconfirmation of securities owned as of December 31, 2014, by correspondence with the custodian and brokers; where replies were notreceived from brokers, we performed other auditing procedures. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.In our opinion, such financial statements and financial highlights referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financialposition of American Balanced Fund as of December 31, 2014, the results of its operations for the year then ended, the changes in its netassets for each of the two years in the period then ended, and the financial highlights for each of the periods presented, in conformitywith accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.Deloitte & Touche LLPCosta Mesa, CaliforniaFebruary 10, 201530 3 American Balanced Fund